For IT, More Risk and More Music

More than 63 percent of colleges and universities in a new survey reported that they had completed a campus IT security risk assessment, an increase from 58 percent last year.

The results, from fiscal year 2006, were compiled between January and May of this year by Educause, which promotes information technology in higher education. The results come in a year that many colleges faced security breaches in their campus networks.

Other general findings from the yearly survey, which assesses campus IT environments and makes the information available in a secure database for participating institutions, are available in this online summary[1]. Some highlights:

Chief information officers are much more likely to report directly to the president at the community college level (63 percent, from 59 percent last year) than on average (48 percent), because of the institutions' clear teaching mission and the ability to scale limited resources with technology.

More campuses than ever (12 percent) offer some sort of music or video downloading service, a 50-percent increase from the 8 percent figure the year before. For research universities -- which are most often targeted by the Recording Industry Association of America -- the number is closer to 30 percent, with another 20 percent either planning to offer or considering similar plans.

The highest level of wireless network access is in libraries, with over 80 percent of respondents reporting that 76–100 percent of their libraries provide wireless access, an increase of nearly 10 percent from last year and 30 percent over the previous three years.

More than 90 percent of all institutions reported providing a course management system for all or nearly all courses, with fewer than 1 percent not using or planning to use a CMS.

There was an increase among all respondents in offering many kinds of support to faculty in the use of IT in teaching and learning, with “faculty training on request” the most employed support mechanism, reported by more than 94 percent of respondents.